The Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist), previously known as Socialist Unity Centre of India and originally known as Socialist Unity Centre is an anti-capitalist and social conservative political party in India. The party was founded by Shibdas Ghosh and Nihar Mukherjee in 1948.
SUCI(C) is a social conservative political party which follows an ideological line formulated by Shibdas Ghosh. SUCI(C) holds that India is a capitalist country with monopoly capitalism and imperialist trends. In line with that analysis, the party claims to work towards a socialist revolution.[1]
The SUCI(C) leadership apparently emphasizes the qualitative upliftment of party cadres, workers of mass-organisations and supporters, by both theoretical study of thought of Shibdas Ghosh and the practical application of such knowledge in the day-to-day life of party workers. SUCI(C) claims to uphold the proletarian cultural standard that should be achieved by the cadres, before they can lead the masses in the Socialist Revolution.
Centring some ideological tensions and debates, about thirty members of Revolutionary Socialist Party were ousted from RSP and this faction along with the group led by a former associate of M. N. Roy — Sudhindra Pramanik, one group led by Nepal Bhattacharjee, founder of Workers and Peasants League and a faction led by Biren Bhattarcharjee claimed to form a propagandist Platform of Action (POA) as Socialist Unity Centre on 1 May 1946 with Shibdas Ghosh and Makhan Chatterjee as joint convenors. 24 Pargana district committee led by Subodh Banerjee also joined the faction. But detailed analysis says that Platform of Action was most likely formed after Independence of India. The leaders of the organisations and groups of the POA couldn't arrive ideological coherency and then the faction led by Shibdas Ghosh and Nihar Mukherjee gave rise to a political party named Socialist Unity Centre on 24 April 1948.[2]
An 11-member central committee was formed consisting of Shibdas Ghosh, Subodh Banerjee, Nihar Mukherjee, Sachin Banerjee, Pritish Chanda, Hiren Sarkar, Rathin Sen, Promod Singha Roy, Monoranjan Banerjee, Radheshyam Saha and Tribeni Bardhan with Shibdas Ghosh as the General Secretary. Although SUCI (C) claims at present that Hiren Sarkar was one of the members of the first central committee, the party’s old documents do not substantiate this. It is speculated that Hiren Sarkar was included in the central committee sometimes after 1954.[2]
Early years (1948-70)
The party took part in different protests against tram fare rise, proposed merger of Bihar and West Bengal and joined Food Movement of 1959-66.[3]
Even though SUCI considers elections as bourgeois tactics, it took part in parliamentary elections from its inception.
SUCI was given the Labour Ministry in the United Front government and Subodh Banerjee became Labour Minister who introduced Gherao principle. United Front issued circular stating that police would not be able to interfere in gheraos (besieging blockades) unless having the permission of the Ministry of Labour.[8][9][10] This led to frequent strikes & protests against big businessmen and industrialists by labour unions causing them to gradually shift their operations out of the state. Kolkata High Court nullified this principle twice. Bangla Congress leaders requested the-then Deputy Chief Minister Jyoti Basu to remove Subodh Banerjee from the Labour Ministry and this proposal was rejected by Basu. When Chief Minister Ajoy Mukherjee himself sat on a hunger strike at Curzon Park in front of Writer's Building demanding Banerjee's resignation, he was heckled by cadres of CPI(M) & SUCI.[11]
When Ajoy Mukherjee presented his resignation on 16 March 1970,[13]Jyoti Basu met Governor Santiswarup Dhawan and he requested that the CPI(M), being the largest party, be allowed to form the government. But SUCI along with Congress, Bangla Congress, CPI and Forward Bloc met him and advised him not to give CPI(M) that opportunity and the Governor recommended President’s rule leading to the fall of the second United Front government.[14]
One of the major campaigns of the party in West Bengal has been its agitations against the Left Front government.
SUCI protested against bus fare hike in 1983 and called for Bangla Bandh (Bengal Strike) in 31 August 1990[3] and organised protest against electricity price rise in 1991 and in 2002.[3]
Following the decision of the Left Front government to remove the English language from primary education to decrease school drop-out ratio, the SUCI protested for the reinstatement of English.[19][20][21] It called for Bangla Bandh on 3 February 1998 in the demand for bringing back English at the primary education.[3] In the year 2000, the SUCI organised a protest demanding English as a compulsory subject at primary education.[3]
Singur-Nandigram movement and alliance with Trinamool Congress
SUCI which was gradually diminishing from the political arena of West Bengal, allied with Trinamool Congress led by Mamata Banerjee in 2008.[30]Provash Ghosh, the-then West Bengal State Secretary of SUCI, termed Banerjee as 'very pro-people' and 'pro-struggle'.
On 21 April 2008, TMC led anti-Left Front Progressive Secular Democratic Alliance including SUCI called for statewide 12 hour strike.[31][32]
In 2009, SUCI was given one Lok Sabha seat to contest under United Progressive Alliance. But it also fielded nine more candidates against Congress. It was speculated that SUCI's move will help Congress by splitting left votes. [33]
In 2011, the alliance also had tacit support of Communist Party of India (Maoist) and Bharatiya Janata Party. SUCI initially demanded 17 seats, but with negotiations with TMC, it agreed for 14 seats. But TMC finally decided to leave 2 seats for SUCI. This led to a rift between the two parties and as a result, SUCI announced 29 more candidates against Congress whereas Congress fielded candidates in 66 seats.[34][35] SUCI won only Jaynagar Assembly constituency and lost Kultali to CPI(M) and forfeited deposits on rest 28 seats.
Nihar Mukherjee Memorial Meeting held in Netaji Indoor Stadium in Kolkata on 3 March 2010
After SUC's disastrous results in 2011 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election, Provash Ghosh said in a press statement that SUC's main aim was to dislodge the CPI(M) government of 34-year span by forming alliance with TMC and his party was ready to sit in opposition after the fall of the Left Front government.
Recent situation
During its peak times, the stronghold of the party was in the South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, in areas such as Jaynagar Majilpur where it once controlled certain municipalities. But it is now almost organisationally and electorally decimated in those areas.
SUCI mural in Kolkata, announcing 'SUCI day' rally on 24 April
Under the leadership of Prakash Karat and Biman Bose, SUCI(C) and five left parties CPI(M), CPI, CPI(ML)L, AIFB and RSP came to common understanding in 2014 to forge larger left unity in order to strengthen mass movements following Bharatiya Janata Party's ascend to the Central Government in 2014 Indian general election.[36] But SUCI joined took part in some selective programmes among the ones organised by the platform. SUCI current General Secretary Provash Ghosh also mocked smaller constituents of Left Front calling them 'rubber stamp of CPM'.[37] SUCI, before 2016 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election, left the platform and had seat-sharing talks with CPI(ML)L.[38] Finally SUCI contested 182 seats and got zero seat and 0.67% votes losing deposits in 180 seats.[39]
On 5 August 2023, SUCI(C) organised a rally in Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata after 35 years of its first such rally in 1988. SUCI was actively aided by the right-wing ruling party of West Bengal Trinamool Congress for organising the rally.[40][41]
SUCI(C) fielded 150 candidates across various states and UTs in 2024 Indian general election and got only 4,80,987 votes, forfeiting deposits in every seat.
Party Congresses of SUCI aren't held regularly like CPI(M), CPI and other left-wing parties.
The 1st SUCI Party Congress was held in Kolkata in 1988, forty years after its formation. In this conference, the constitution of the party was adopted.
The 2nd Party Congress was held from 11 to 17 November 2009 in Ramlila Maidan, New Delhi.[43][44][45] The word 'communist' was added to the party's name at the second party congress.[46]
The third Party Congress was organised in 2018.
General Secretaries
In SUCI, the General Secretary customarily holds office ad mortem.
Provash Ghosh is the current leader of the party. He was elected as the General Secretary of the party by the Central Committee on 4 March 2010 following death of Nihar Mukherjee.
They are often criticized by the other Left parties for supporting semi-fascistic and virulently anti-communist party like TMC, to defeat the Left Front Government.
SUC is also criticised by CPI(M) as it prioritizes weakening the left democratic movement by criticising left-wing parties instead of right-wing parties like BJP and TMC in various rallies.[48]
The party has also questionable stances on social issues, calling homosexuality a sign of "mental deformity and morbidity" and it supports inhuman activities in the name of "stringent punishment like life-term" of homosexual people.[49] The party which highly talks about progressive culture, is in staunch opposition to the introduction of sex education in schools.[50]
↑ "The Second United Front". Archived from the original on 12 October 2008. On March 16, Ajoy-babu resigned. In protest, the BPTUC and the July 12 Committee led many democratic and peoples' organisations to a successful general strike the very next day. I met the Governor and requested him to allow the CPI(M), as the single largest party, to form the government on its own and that we would give proof of our strength on the floor of the Assembly. On the other hand, the Congress, Bangla Congress, CPI, Forward Bloc and SUCI met him and advised him not to give us that opportunity.
↑ Political Science Review. Vol.18–19. Department of Political Science, University of Rajasthan. 1979. p.31.
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